Red Alert in Jerusalem: Terrorist Vet Prepares Palestinian Intifada # 3
Mahmoud al-Aloul, Deputy Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, member of the Fatah Central Committee, and notorious veteran of two former Palestinian uprisings, is at it again.
DEBKA Weekly’s intelligence and counter-terrorism sources report that two weeks ago, he secretly set in motion preparations for embarking on Palestinian Intifada No. 3, unbeknown to the mainstream Palestinian leadership and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).
Al-Aloul’s first step was to mobilize the cells of Tanzim, Fatah’s armed wing, which he controls in Nablus, the West Bank’s largest town. These cells, numbering some 2,000 terrorists, he placed on standby for the order to launch attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets in all parts of the country. Al Aloul is also a member of the PLO’s supreme military council
It is the first time in 12 years, since Israel extinguished the third uprising in 2005, that a senior Fatah member of Abbas’ inner ruling circle has taken steps towards igniting the Fatah movement for another campaign of terror against Israel. Israel’s security and counter-terrorism authorities got wind of the conspiracy afoot last week, our sources report – whereupon they sent Al-Alouf a stern warning that if he went ahead, he and his underground Nablus cells would themselves in hot water and singled out as targets.
According to their estimates, Al-Aloul’s plan to unleash a new violent uprising is strongly motivated by personal ambition. At 82, Abbas’s health and powers are declining, and he will soon be forced to step down. Al-Aloul believes this will happen soon and, by maneuvering himself in place for leading another intifada, he will gain the edge in bidding for the succession as Palestinian leader over front-runner Jibril Rajoub.
At 66, Al-Aloul has a long record of previous violent campaigning against Israel. Born in Nablus, he was deported to Jordan in 1971 for terrorist activity. The young Palestinian got his taste for violence in the Palestinian anti-Israel “Western Front,” which was established by the late Khalil al-Wazeer, head of the Fatah armed wing, who became known as Abu Jihad, whom Israel liquidated in Tunisia.
In 1983, he orchestrated the abduction of six Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and the subsequent bargaining which ended in a deal for the release of 5,000 terrorists held in the Ansar detention camp in southern Lebanon plus another 100 convicted Palestinians jailed in Israel. He was also secretary of the “Committee for Occupied Territories which ran the first intifada. In the second uprising, he lost his son who was shot by Israeli soldiers.
After long delays, Israeli security authorities finally let him to return to the West Bank. In recent months, he goes around making speeches in which he maintains that the Palestinian national issue is at the most hazardous juncture in its history, because the Israeli government’s policy of “occupation” accounts for the “theft of more land and the eviction of increasing numbers of Palestinian inhabitants.” He never neglects to emphasize that Fatah was the first Palestinian movement to stage a popular uprising to massively confront the Israeli enemy and endured the largest number of martyrs of any Palestinian group.
Since the beginning of 2017 and Donald Trump’s election as US president, Al-Aloul has been spearheading the anti-American demonstrations on the West Bank. He also takes a vocal lead in stirring up Palestinian protest to the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem. In this context, he frequently appears on Palestinian broadcasting media to pour praise on terrorists. He also uses his Facebook page to run anti-American and anti-Israeli hate cartoons. A recent video clip depicted Palestinians stabbing Jews in Jerusalem under the caption: “Our sons and daughters, go into action!”
